Pandora's Lullaby-Shadow Walker
by ginsbajn
Summary: The world is in danger. Again. Unfortunately this time around, it's going to take more than the Avengers to stop this threat. The infamous assassin duo Nightwalker and Shadow may be S.H.I.E.L.D's and the Avengers only hope of defending the world against an unstoppable force, but both are broken beyond repair and both are harboring a secret that may either save or destroy the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: Just so you guys know. One this is not chapter 17, it is chapter one. And two, I had to re-upload this as something went wrong the first time. Sorry!**

Chapter 1

New York, 7:34 am

Natasha was getting coffee. This was not unnatural, as Natasha knew she pretty much survived off the substance. No, the unnatural thing was that Natasha was not on a mission today; not busting some illegal trade, or beating up some crime lord, or saving the world. No, today was her 'day off'. Which meant today was looking to be a very boring day indeed.

There were two others in the cafe with her, a boy and a girl. Not surprising seeing as it was 7:30 in the morning. The surprising part was that they were young, strangely so- shouldn't they be in school? The boy couldn't be a day over 20 and the girl with him; maybe 16?- They were sitting in a booth by a window, hunched over papers scattered across the tabletop. Natasha squinted, blueprints and maps? What? Both were talking in low tones and occasionally making gestures with their hands. The girl was highlighting and outlining certain things with a sharpie and the paper before her.

This piqued her interest. Maybe they were working on a school project. She thought, but then quickly dismissed it. Well, only one way to find out. Natasha casually walked forward, coffee in hand, catching a snippet of their conversation.

"And if we went around here, and then there...No, that won't work either, but maybe..." The girl trailed off and groaned and her partner sitting across from her dropped his head into his hands.

"What are we doing Amber? We should be living life, not strategizing, not making battle plans. Not fighting in a _war._ "

"I know," She says softly, "I know."

Now every instinct in Natasha was screaming _suspicious! Danger_ And, _Gather information!_ So, Natasha waved goodbye to her 'day off' and did what she did best. She slipped into spy mode.

The girl, Amber, wasn't it? Reached into a black backpack beside her and drew out a laptop. the screen has little green number that look like code scrolling across it and she types a string of commands in. Up pops a map-ish thing of the United States- red and black points are littered all over the place. At the top of the screen, it says something but Natasha, frustratingly, can't read it.

The laptop is turned to the boy and they begin to converse again, this time tapping and pointing to various things on the map displayed on the screen. Natasha pretends to sip her coffee while leaning against the wall and listens closer.

"No, I haven't heard from Lila's group yet, thankfully, their territory is safe, for now. But Pandora's on the move. _Again._ " She sounds thoroughly exasperated and goes and taps on a red dot in what Natasha recognizes as California. "Last I heard, they took over an old Hydra base in Francisco."

Natasha freezes. Hydra? She thought they were gone! She makes a split-second decision- if there was one thing that being an assassin taught you, it was to never assume anything until you had all the facts, and all the cards to be played. Natasha's hand drifts down to where her phone, along with a spare throwing knife, is kept, and S.H.I.E.L.D is only a call away.

But, Natasha's luck has run out. Amber notices Natasha standing there. Her eyes are cold and calculating, hardened. They show no emotion- a look that rivals Natasha's own. Her gaze narrows. She looks at Natasha and Natasha's blood runs ice cold, it was like she was looking straight through her soul. With that and a look at her partner, understanding flashing in their eyes, she closes the laptop with a snap, and then stuffs it in her bag. All while the boy gathers up the papers scattered on the table and puts them in the backpack as well. They stand quickly and the boy hefts the backpack over his shoulder. Amber grabs what looks like a napkin and scribbled something on it. Both start to casually walk toward the door, the boy goes outside first, but Amber changes course abruptly.

She brushes right past Natasha and disappears out the doorway into the bustling streets of New York City. Natasha is pondering on whether or not to follow them because that would be the logical thing, the acted so unsuspiciously that it _was_ suspicious. Then she feels something in her closed fist, a piece of paper rest crumpled in her palm. Dread shoots through Natasha and, praying she won't regret it, she looks down.

 _Don't try and follow us._

 _You wouldn't be able to anyway._

 _You do not want to get mixed up in this mess._

 _-Nightwalker and Shadow_

Natasha swears, not caring who hears. This is bad. _Very bad._


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Alright, Clint's family does not exist in this, so no Luara or the kids. Age of Ultron did happen, with some differences that will become clear. Natasha and Bruce are not romantically, in this involved, nor will they be. Just to make sure; Amber is Nightwalker, and the Daniel is Shadow. Вы хотите , чтобы сделать почести , или я** **смогу? means: Do you want to do the honors, or do I get to?**

 **Reviews are welcome!**

Amber's POV:

As soon as Amber saw the female redhead agent in the coffee shop, her day got progressively worse than it already was. Which was saying something; seeing as Pandora was on the move, and she and her partner, Daniel, had spotted wolf-men in NYC. No, the reason both Daniel's and Ambers day went to hell in a handbasket was because some party other than Pandora- and, once upon a time, Hydra- knew who they were, and where their approximate location was. Which pretty much spelled out bad in capital letters.

After they had left the shop, Amber and Daniel quickly found an alleyway to set up a temporary base in, where they could locate the wolf-men in relative secrecy. And after that was done, take them out. The following few hours were spent finding locations and strategizing. Hopefully avoiding any civilians- or themselves, for that matter- getting hurt. So by the time Amber and Daniel had assumed their codenames- Nightwalker for Amber, and Shadow for Daniel- and snuck off under the cover of darkness, Amber was ready to kick some wolf-men and Pandora ass.

She was sorely disappointed. An unexpected scene awaited Amber and Daniel when they arrived. There were people who were already fighting the wolf-men, and losing terribly. Yes, Amber's day had just gotten worse.

Clint's POV:

When Natasha came storming out of the elevator into the tower, Clint wondered what he had done this time. Maybe she was still mad about when he changed out her regular rounds for pink ammunition? Instead of punching him like she usually did when he did something like that, Natasha simply grabbed his arm and dragged him, rather roughly, into the elevator.

"Ow, Tasha, what was that for?" Clint whined, rubbing his arm.

"Fury wants us." Natasha curtly replied. That successfully shut Clint up from whatever he was going to complain about next, because when Fury wanted you it meant he meant business, and when Fury meant business, it meant something bad was going on. And when something bad was going on...Well, you get the point.

The rest of the elevator ride was spent in an almost eerie silence. The doors opened at the landing pad where a qin-jet was, rather conveniently, waiting.

"Helicarrier?" Clint asked. "Helicarrier," Natasha confirmed. After a few minutes in the air, Clint suddenly thought of something.

"Wasn't today your day off?" He asked Natasha confusedly. "It was," She said shortly, and the rest of the qin-jet ride was also spent in silence.

Natasha's POV

To tell the truth, Natasha was grateful to Clint for not pushing any further. But then again, he knows her so well- sometimes Natasha thinks that he knows her better than she knows herself. As far as Natasha knew, the current Helicarrier was one of the only ones that remained. But who knew? If she knows Fury, then she has a pretty good hunch that he still has some unplayed cards up his sleeve. And Natasha's hunches are usually right. Once they arrive, Clint and Natasha report to a briefing room where Fury is waiting.

"Barton, Romanoff," Fury greets as they walk through the door.

Natasha takes a seat and Clint follows. The briefing goes by fast, but then again, there wasn't much to tell. Apparently some kind of wolf-mutant hybrid thing was running around terrorizing New York, they also traveled in packs and killed anything they spotted. Natasha and Clint's mission was to eliminate the threat. Fun. As they walked out the door, Natasha remembered something, and she dug the napkin out of her pocket,

"Here sir," she said as she handed it to Fury.

He took it and his eye widened, "Natasha," he called to her, "Be careful."

Fury never told anyone to be careful. Natasha knew this, and a cold feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach. Something was happening, it was all connected somehow and whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

There Natasha was, fighting for her life in an abandoned alleyway, like usual. It was all too familiar, but with one exception. The mutants- wolf-men, as Natasha called them in her head- couldn't be hurt. Clint's arrows, even the exploding kind, her bullets, and Widow's bites, didn't even make a dent. Those things could not die. And to tell the truth, it was getting annoying, along with the indestructibility, the wolf-men _had_ to have super-human strength and agility.

Natasha was then dragged to the ground, she felt pain erupt in one shoulder, lashing out, Natasha caught the wolf-man who had buried it's fangs in her with a punch and a kick that normally would have finished the job quite nicely. But alas, it didn't do a thing. The wolf-man was on top of her now, opening its mouth full of sharp fangs and bringing them closer to Natasha's neck. Fear ran through her, was this how she would die? Natasha saw Clint in the distance, fighting on- he wouldn't be able to save her this time. Natasha braced herself as the fangs grew closer. But then, they stopped.

An arrow buried itself behind the wolf-man's ear, causing it to stagger and fall to the ground.

"Clint! You've found a way to kill them!" Natasha shouts, feeling quite relieved.

That feeling is short lived, the realization hits her hard and fast, Clint is too busy fighting two of the beasts, he wasn't the one who shot the arrow. Confusion runs through Natasha, if Clint wasn't the one to shoot the arrow, then who was?

Natasha turns slowly, taking in the scene around her. Her gaze lands on one of the surrounding rooftops and she quickly makes out two shadowed figures outlined against the moon. One of the figures is holding an outstretched bow, and before she can process it, another arrow is whizzing past Natasha's head to embed itself in the skull of one of the wolf-men fighting Clint. One more arrow follows that, and the remaining wolf-men back off into the shadows to regroup.

This was happening all too fast, Natasha thought as her brain frantically fought to process this new development. On an unspoken cue, the figure with the bow slings it over their back and both figures then leap off the rooftop, rushing toward Natasha and Clint's location.

They arrive with weapons blazing, and one pushes Clint behind them and the other darts towards Natasha a pushes her behind themself as well. Natasha catches a glance at their face, and her world tilts sideways- it's the girl from the coffee shop, and Natasha's willing to bet her career that the one guarding Clint is the boy. The girl- now confirmed as Amber, and she also must be one of the two, either Shadow or Nightwalker- notices Natasha looking at her and her eyes widen slightly in recognition. She opens her mouth to say something, but a snarl erupted from where the wolf-men had previously disappeared. Natasha, being the always prepared person she is, grabs her spare throwing knife- it's not much, but if Amber and the boy can kill them, why can't she?

Amber shoots a glance at the boy and he nods, with that, Amber grabs Clint from behind her partner and shoves Natasha and him toward the entrance of the alleyway.

"Go," She hissed urgently, "This isn't your fight."

Then the wolf-men attack, lunging toward the boy, but he holds his own, taking shot after shot at them with his pistols and somehow- even when Natasha's bullets couldn't even make a single scratch- killing them. Seeing their hesitation, Amber smirks, "Don't worry, this is easy." She says while pushing them back further.

Clint then asks with his eyes, "Should we?" Natasha blinks back, "Yeah, but lets stick around, call for S.H.I.E.L.D backup- Fury's gonna wanna talk to these guys." Natasha and Clint bolt out of of the alley and Amber throws herself into the escalating fray.

Ten minutes later Natasha and Clint stand on a rooftop, mouths dropped in awe. 23 wolf-men lay dead on the ground- Amber and her partner in the middle. The boy- god, Natasha really needs to learn his name, boy sounds so bad. Starts to drag the bodies- some of which are very mutilated; peppered with bullet holes, knife wounds, and the occasional arrow sprouting out of a chest- into a corner. Amber soon goes to join him, pulling the bodies into a pile. What really unnerves Natasha though is that both have such impassive looks on their faces- like they didn't even care that they had singlehandedly killed over 20 people- were the wolf-men people? Probably not, but still- in the span of no more than 15 minutes. Everything about them screamed dangerous, immediately making Natasha wary.

Amber's POV:

The sun just broke over the horizon as Nightwalker stepped back to stand next to Shadow- who was also known to her as Daniel- and survey their handiwork. 23 bodies lay piled up in a corner in the back of the alleyway, illuminated by the rising sun's rays. Thank goodness it was a large alley, or it would have been significantly harder to get the job done- and then hide the remains.

Shadow snapped his fingers, went to one of the bodies and pulled out a black earpiece. He handed it to Nightwalker who took it in her hand. "Вы хотите , чтобы сделать почести , или я смогу?" She asked him. All the while knowing she would do it anyway.

"Nah, you do it," Shadow replied while holstering his pistols on his belt. A dark look crossed over Nightwalker's face and she dropped the black device onto ground in the center of the alley, pausing. The sun hit her body and the blood- from the wolf-men or wounds, or probably both- on her hands and arms became noticeable, glimmering crimson red in the morning light.

"Pandora," Nightwalker suddenly hissed venomously, looking at the device on the ground, feeling nothing but pure hatred, "Go to hell." With that her black boot came crashing down on the earpiece, crushing it with a loud crack. Amber dusted her hands on her pants, smearing red, feeling somewhat satisfied. So her day had gotten significantly better in the last hour or so, still, something wasn't right.

Well," Shadow said looking around, "Seems like everything's been taken care of; the wolf-men are dead, Pandora's bug has been smashed…" He trailed off.

"And those people from earlier are still hanging around, watching us." Nightwalker finished, zeroing in on the rooftop where the man and the women thought they'd concealed themselves.

"You can come out now, we have no reason to kill you." She said as she silently added, _yet_.

Clint's POV:

Tasha quickly put a hand to her ear, "What? No, not hostile yet. They saved our lives," She said in a harsh whisper.

"What do you think, Agent Barton?" Clint's earpiece crackled, "What do I think about what?" He answered.

Natasha smacked his arm, "Them you idiot, S.H.I.E.L.D wants to bring the both of them in. Besides, have you ever heard of Nightwalker and Shadow?"

Clint blinked slowly, "Wait, so you think that those two are them?" He turned to Tasha.

"Yep, met 'em this morning in a coffee shop." She said, "I vote we take them in, even if they're not them, they do know how to kill those _things_." Clint nodded in agreement to Natasha's statement.

"Copy that," Came the reply, "Take them down."

That was when the girl's voice rang out, directed at them. "You can come out now, we have no reason to kill you."

Really? Clint thought, and that makes us feel so much better. Clint looked at Natasha and gave her a nod, "I'll take the boy, you get the girl," he conveyed as he grabbed a tranquilizer arrow from his quiver. Clint and Natasha climbed off the rooftop, walking to meet the assumed Nightwalker and Shadow in the entrance of the alley. The boy turned- somehow sensing something wrong and made movement to signal his partner- but before he could do anything, his back had an arrow sticking out of it. He crumpled to the ground, motionless.

The girl, once she saw her partner was down, drew out her knives and got a dangerous look in her eyes. She looked at Clint and Natasha, then down at the boy, and up again, before settling her gaze on Clint. Her eyes were cold, unfeeling, and Clint was slightly unnerved. But he was not called Hawkeye for nothing- he saw a haunted gaze, hidden carefully behind many masks and faces.

Then she lunged, flinging herself at Natasha and before Clint could blink, Natasha was on the ground with a knife at her throat. Clint froze, how did she do that? Tasha was _the_ Black Widow for crying out loud, the deadliest freaking woman alive! His muscles moved without Clint telling them to, grabbing an arrow, placing it in his bow, aiming, fire.

"Thunk!" It hit the girl's shoulder with a thud, she staggered upright and stumbled a few steps over to where her partner lay. She was fighting it, Clint saw, but it wouldn't be long. The girls eyes became unfocused, but she placed herself in a defensive stance in front of the boy, protecting him. Wait for it, Clint thought. The girl collapsed.

When S.H.I.E.L.D arrived they found one Hawkeye and Black Widow standing in an alley, each holding an unconscious person in their arms. The ride back to base was quiet, both Clint and Natasha pondering what had just happened.


	3. Authors Note

Due to an extreme case of writer's block, this story is going on temporary hold/hiatus. So sorry guys!


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